Aerial advertising ban for America’s Cup narrowly passes

Fasten your seatbelts, the path to banning aerial advertising in San Francisco looks to be a bumpy ride.

The Board of Supervisors initially voted late Tuesday to reject a ban on aerial advertising over the America’s Cup race course, before taking a second vote and narrowly accepting it. Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, Jane Kim, Norman Yee and London Breed opposed the ban while Supervisor Malia Cohen switched her vote to join Supervisors David Chiu, Eric Mar, Mark Farrell, Scott Wiener and Katy Tang in support.

Though several supervisors said they were interested in a ban for both the Cup and citywide, there is also a fear that doing so could invite a lawsuit. A ban on aerial advertising in Honolulu was upheld in federal court, but other cities have explored eliminated aerial advertising and dropped the issue following pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the skies.

The legislation affecting the Cup was sponsored by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development as part of the agreement with event organizers to do everything possible to prevent ambush advertising at the race, but some supervisors said they had no desire to make a special exception thanks to the Cup’s declining economic expectations.

“We’re trying to meet an obligation for an entity that has not met an obligation for us,” Breed said. “It’s wrong to do it at the expense of a possible lawsuit.”

Wiener said that the city should stick to the original agreement.

“Obviously all of us have disappointments about what we thought the America’s Cup might be and what it’s turning out to be,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a reason for us to throw up our hands, and say we agreed that we would pursue this but now we’re not going to to pursue this because we’re mad at the America’s Cup.”

The debate on a citywide ban is set to begin again on Monday at the Land Use and Economic Development Committee meeting.